CONTENT WARNING – Part of Haile’s story contains extremely confronting narrative including rape and violence. I have preceded that section with *** and finished with the same. When I was editing this story I was in two minds to include it but we can’t gloss over these atrocities and it is Haile’s story, not mine.
Haile Shishaye – (Part 2/2)
“ While I was studying and teaching at the Uni for the 2 1/2 years I also at the same time wrote a film script and I produced one film. I sold that film and I bought the land in my city to bring my Mum from the village to the city before I moved here to Australia. I built her a house, it’s a large house and it’s in her name.
In Ethiopia and especially in Tigray, when you marry a woman, it’s like marrying the whole family. I was well aware that if a lady came into my life and something happened then would I still be able to support my Mum? The film was a romantic film and a true story. People were saying I couldn’t do it but I was so determined. I was able to get sponsors but I especially want to thank one person who was the President of the University at the time. His name is Professor Belay Kasa. He gave me letters to send to the other Uni’s and they supported the film. The happiest time was bringing my Mum to her house in the city.
I came to Australia to study my Masters at Flinders University. It was in Hydrogeology and I studied for 2 years under scholarship and I was paid so I was supporting my Mum and family. It was a happy life for me. All the pains had gone and I was able to support myself and my family.
I finished my Masters in 2014 and I went back to my country. I went back to the University where I started my career and I started teaching. Obviously we still have water shortage problems in Ethiopia but I was able to solve the University’s water shortage problems and then we started solving the communities problems. I was also involved in policy designs for the nation. I was involved in Irrigation and Bio-Refinery Policy and I’m still involved in my State’s policy and strategy in water where I lead a team of people. We have a PhD association which is called the Global Society of Tigrayan Scholars.
In 2018 I got a scholarship at Southern Cross University so I came back here to do my Phd in Hydrogeology. The project was in the Great Barrier Reef which made it very special. As you know the reef is struggling and there is a lot of risks there. My responsibility was to quantify how much ground water and nutrients are entering the Great Barrier Reef. That project was fantastic and I learned a lot. We produced excellent publications where the Government is now going to visit. I recently got a certificate from the Publisher who has linked my publications to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
I finished my PhD in April 2021 after 3 years. SCU was interested to start a new unit of Hydrogeology. They asked me if I can develop the Unit. I was teaching that same course back home, had my Masters and Phd in Hydrogeology so yes, I could do that. I accepted and they developed the unit from scratch and I started teaching. This year they gave me another unit to develop. Geo-technical Engineering was already there but they asked me to improve the content which I did and I was a Lecturer as well.
*** In 2018 Ethiopia got a new Prime Minister. This man is young and above all knows nothing of how to run a country. He is destroying all the infrastructure and above all he is conducting genocide in my state. In the last 2 years there is an intensive war in my State where Ethiopia allied with Eritrea and they invaded my state. It is a terrible story I am going to tell you. They have raped more than 120,000 women and children, sometimes up to 30 men to one woman. These girls range from the age of 6 to 80. Some are Nuns. They then fill their private parts with stones and rubbish. It is beyond horrific. They have killed more than 600,000 innocent people in my state in the last 2 years and not just those who are fighting. HIV and STD’s are spreading all over the state and people can’t get medications. There is a 360 degree blockade so they have no medications, they don’t let any aid to enter, they are still bombing and they are fighting on the ground. The military in my state is still fighting but they are fighting 100 times more than they have. It is a hell on earth right now. We cannot call our families. My Mum is still there. There is no telephones, no banking, no electricity, nothing.
There is a war in Ukraine and people all over the world are talking about it. The disaster in my State is far beyond and I don’t support what Russia is doing to the Ukraine at all but what’s happening in Tigray is a total disaster. The State has been looted. They burned the grains that the farmers had. People are dying from starvation, lack of medication and the trauma. They inflict HIV purposefully with telling infected soldiers to rape and they force fathers and brothers to inflict these crimes on their own loved ones.***
The World Health Organisation said, It’s the colour of the skin otherwise Tigray would have been given even a tiny bit of what the world is giving to Ukraine. In 2018 I started my media business because they stopped all media in the State to keep everybody in a dark place. I took a 6 month training in Journalism and I started a TV company which is in the States as well. Dedebit TV is my TV company. I registered it in Australia and started broadcasting to Ethiopia and started empowering our people. We are trying to get the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea not to engage in this genocide on Tigray. We have 4 shows daily, news, interviews, etc. I have hired some Journo’s from Tigrayans living overseas to let the world know. We get leaked photos and videos from Tigray when people can come to the borders to get internet. It is tough going through getting my qualifications and having all my family going through this.
I was here through this big Lismore flood and lost everything in my studio. When I woke up in the morning, it was like watching a movie. We were safe at night. My car disappeared totally. I learned a lot and I produced a proposal and I still believe this is solvable. If we look at this problem only through a political point of view then it won’t be solved. This can be solved through an engineering perspective. I lost everything and the bad thing was, until last month I was still on a student visa so I couldn’t get support from the government. I was fortunate that I still had work during that time.
My long term plan is to keep working on my media. I have a team in Melbourne and the plan is to open a big studio. I would like Tigray to become a country. They have gone through enough sacrifices. Ethiopia is known as the land of origins. The oldest fossil ever found is in Ethiopia. They tried bombing the oldest Monastery in the world which is in my State and nothing happened to it. That bought me to believe. 99% of what the world know as Ethiopian special resources or as tourist destinations are in Tigray. Tigray was the centre of governance. All the Kings were there. Ras Alula was from there. There are underground palaces, it’s steeped in history and they want to wipe us all out.
So that is where I am right now. With all these pains I’m still struggling with that motivation. My younger brother was wounded and they are treating him with traditional medicines because there are no pharmaceuticals. The Prime Minister of Finland said the Ethiopian government officials told him word for word that they want to wipe out Tigrayans. I’m really afraid that they will succeed and the world is silent about it.
Thank you Denise for hearing my story. Publishing these kind of stories makes a difference in the story of the humans of Lismore. We are here as one community and we all have these different perspectives and pains that we bear on our shoulders. We all carry the bright and the black sides of the story behind us. Living together in a common culture and coming from a different culture with all the pains and trauma back home and still living as a normal human is just exemplary I tell you.”